New ideas

I have a friend who is a writer and a poet and she translated 2 poems by Nikolai Gumilev for me to work with.
First poem is "Giraffe"

Today, I see, your gaze is especially sad,

Your arms are especially thin hugging your knees.

Listen: far, far away, on Lake Chad

Wonders an exquisite giraffe.

Bestowed with graceful slimness and bliss,

He wares a coat of magic ornament

To which, only the Moon would dare to compare

As it trembles and sways on the lake’s wide face.

From afar, he resembles the colourful sails of a ship,

His run is flowing, like a joyful flight of birds.

I know, the world is witness to many wonderful things,

When at night he hides in his marble cave.

I know fairytales of mysterious lands,

Of a dark maiden, of the passions of a young chief.

But for too long you have been breathing in the heavy haze,

You don’t want to believe in nothing but rain.

And how I will tell you of a tropical garden,

Of slender palm trees, of the smell of unthinkable herbs…

Are you crying? Listen… far far away on Lake Chad

Wonders an exquisite giraffe.

From this poem i want to make a quite abstract painting in a style that i often use - abstract pattern. If i can, i might try to replicate some ideas i got when i was researching other artists (see research book).

And the second poem is "You and I"

Yes I know I’m not a match for you,

I came from a different land

And I like not the guitar,

But the heathen song of the zurna.

Not in ballrooms and salons,

To dark dresses and suits –

I read my poems to dragons,

To waterfalls and clouds.

I love – like an Arab in a desert

Falls to his knees to water and drinks,

Not like a knight in a painting,

Gazing at stars and waiting.

And I will die – not in a bed,

With a notary and a doctor by my side,

But in some savage cave

Drowning in thick ivy.

So I will enter a paradise,

Not the tidy protestant one,

But the one where a highwayman,

A nomad and a whore will scream at me - “Rise!”

And from this poem i want to make a photo - collage photos for which i will be taking during my holiday trips.

In general, i want to try out different ways of working with each poem to see what comes out of this. It might even be interesting to book a project space and do a mini - show of works that i will make using poetry.